The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-02-26

weep, or read novel, or wiring her
hands? No, she went to the cupboard.
And here we may observe that she went
to the cupboard. She did not hop, or
skip, or run, or jump, or use any other
peripatetic artifce; she solely and mere
ly went to the cupboard.
"We have seen that she was old and
lonely, and we further see she was poor.
For mark, the words are 'the cupboard
Not 'one OF the cupboards,' or the right
hand cupboard or the 1eft-hand cup.
board or the one above, or the one be-
low, or the one under the floor, but just
the cupboard. The one, humble, little
cupboard the widow possessed And
why did she go to the cupboard? Was ii
to bring golden goblets, or glittering
precious stones, or costly apparel, or
feasts, or any other attribute of wealth?
1t was to get her poor dog bone Not
only was the widow poor, but her dog,
the sole prop of her age, was poor too.
| We can imagine the scene. The poor
| upS CEcucuinS III VIC COIAcIs lOchAhS
wistfully at the solitary cupboard, and
the widow going to that cupboard in
hope, i'll expectation, may be-to open it,
although we are not distinctly told that
it was not half open or aiar, to open it for
that poor dog:
"'But when she got there, the cupboard was
| bare.
And so the poor dog had none
brethren, what perseverance is. You
see the beauty Of perseverance in doing
right. She got there. There were no
turnings or twistings, no clippings and
slidinge, no leaning to the right or fal:er-
ings to the left. With glorious simplicity
we are told she got there.
"And how was her noble effort reward
ed?
1.-The cupboard was bare. 1t was bare.
There were to be found neither oranges,
nor cheese cakes, nor penny buns, nor GIN
gerbread, nor crackers, nor nuts, nor luci-
fer matches. The cupboard was barrel
There was but one, only one solitary cup
board in the whole of that cottage, and
that one the sole hope of the widow, and
the glorious lodestar of the poor dog, was
bare! Had there been leg of mutton, q
loin of lamb, fillet Of veal, even an ice
from Gunther's the case would have been
different, the incident would have been
otherwise. But it was bare, my brethren,
bare as q bald head, bare as an infant
born without caul.
"Many of you may probably say, with
all the pride Of worldly sophistry: 'The
widow, no doubt, went out and bought a
dog biscuit All no! Far removed from
earthly ideas, these mundane desires,
poor Mother Hubbard, the widow whom
thoughtless worldlings would despise, in
that she only owned cupboard, perceiv-
ed-or might even say saw-at once the
relentless logic of the situation, and
yielded to it with all the heroism of that
nature which had enabled her without de-
Walton, to reach the barren cupboard.
She did not attempt, like the stiff-necked
scoffers of this generation, to war against
the inevitable; she did not try, like the
SO. called men of science, to explain what
she did not understand. She did nothing.
The poor dog had none; and then at this
point our information ceases; but do we
not know sufficient? Are we not cogniz-
ant of enough?
"Who would dare to pierce the veil
that shrouds the Interior fate of old
Mother Hubbard = the poor dog-she
cupboard = or the bone that was not
there? Must we imagine her still stand.
ing at the open cupboard door, depict to
ourselves the dog still dropping his dis
appointed tail upon the floor, the sought
for bone, still remaining somewhere else?
All! no, my dear brethren, we are not SO
permitted to attempt to read the future.
Suffice it for us to CLEAN from this beauti-
full story its many lessons; suffice it for
us to apply them, to study them, as far as
in us lies, and, bearing in mind the nat
ural frailty of our nature, to avoid being
widows, to shun the patronymic of Hub
bard; to have, if our means afford it,
more than one cupboard in the house,
and to keep stores in them ell. And OH
dear friends, keeping in recollection what
we have learned this day, let us avoid
keeping dogs that are fond of bones. But,
brethren, if we do - if fate has ordained
that We should do any of these things
let us then go, as Mother Hubbard did,
straight, without curvetting or prancing,
to our cupboard, empty though it be; let
us, like her, accept the inevitable with
calm steadfastness; and should we, like
her, ever be left with hungry dog and
an empty cupboard, may future chroni-
clers be able to write also of us, in the
beautiful words of our text:
"And so the poor dog had none."
WESTMINSTER ABBEY.